After completing the Masterbox Mk.1 "female" build a month or so ago, I made a start on the Mk.1 "male".

As per usual the kit parts are easy to work with though needed a little more clean up than the Mk.1 "female" version.

The plastic is brittle and parts need careful removal from sprues. I was prepared for parts that had broken building the "female" version and this again occurred, even after I took more care.

There is a little distortion of the vinyl tracks which appears to be slight mis-mould. Once painted however, it is not as noticeable.

I chose to use Vallejo English Uniform as recommended in many discussion groups in preference to the much darker chocolate brown colour in the Mig WW1 armour set.

In contrast to my earlier rather muddy Mk1 Female build, this build will be a dusty one.

The two images taken with my iPhone show my build halfway through weathering.

kool..what size gun is that?

Hotchkiss 6pdr quick firers

Another nice looking build sabredog! There's something about those original monsters crashing over trenches that's fascinating! And it's amazing to see how far tank warfare and technology have come. Keep up the outstanding work!

Below is an in-progress image of three of the set of six AB Miniatures 20mm WW1 tank crew sold by Eureka Miniatures here in Australia. These are finely sculpted white metal figures that have recently been released.

These have been painted using Vallejo paints using blending methods to highlight the very nice detail in each figure.

The iPhone camera really shows up the most minute flaws but to the Mk.1 eyeball, they look really nice and I am quite happy so far. Bit more work on each and then it is on to the base and final work on the Mk.1 Male.

Sorry they are not as in focus as they should be, but 20mm is pretty small to take pics of with an iPhone

The AB Miniatures are really nice, very proportional in this scale. Excellent painting!

Isn't 20mm figs a little small for 1/72? They will make the vehicle look really, really big! Sort of like using 1/35 figs with 1/32 tanks. Of course, some adults are 5' tall!

Tank looks good, figures look good too... I guess only seeing the two together will demonstrate if they look right or not.
I'm keenly anticipating seeing them together on what I'm sure will be yet another of Michael's great bases! (No pressure then.)

20mm is close enough to 1/72. Placed near and on the tank, they look fine.

I am quite careful with scales.

Just to add to the previous post, now I am home from work to check, is a pic showing the actual size of these 20mm AB Miniatures releases.

As can be seen, they are around 25mm, which equates to 1.8m, so this figure is tall. The others vary a bit but do not exceed 25mm.

The bloke had Dutch ancestors, so nothing tall at all

Nice work on your tank, I like the subtle weathering thus far. The figures look also very nice. Well painted!



Jelger

LOL

My first wife is half Dutch, so while I am a mere 1.73m tall both of my sons are well over 1.9m tall

Back into this build over the weekend.

More progress leading up to Christmas.

Started work on the base and you can see in one of the images, a quick arrangement to see if everything all fits. The figures are designed to display in a semi circle around the officer. All is needed is to ensure proper placement.





The base was done using celluclay and painted with a variety of earth colours in an effort to achieve shades of the dark soil on the Somme. I mixed some Mig Russian Earth pigment into the base paintwork to darken to an appropriate shade.

Some patchy grass and grass tufts were added to busy up the base. There is still more to do, but it is looking quite good now.

"Righto chaps, gather round!"

Managed to finish my Masterbox 1/72 WW1 Mk.1 "male" heavy tank right at the last minute for a 2014 build.

I added more groundwork to the base and blended in the standing figures. I was concerned about the bloke on the sponson "sit" so did some self testing on a couch arm to see if indeed, there was a bit of "open air" at the rear between posterior and surface being sat on, especially with the lean to his left. Indeed there is!

Here are three iPhone pics to show the end result.







and a bit of editing and aging...

Michael, it all looks good. I think the figures look about right in terms of their height, perhaps a touch on short side if a direct comparison is made with a photo, but then again, it tends to be faces that we gauge human size by rather than just height, and in those terms, the tank still looks right. Congrats on sneaking another completed build into 2014!! I haven't managed another over this holiday unfortunately, despite trying.

I was a bit concerned about the figure height, but some research and discussions have made me satisfied to their accuracy.

This build was nearly completed before the end of the year, so it did not take a lot more work to finish it.